Chapter 1: Eyes up, Guardian.
I never knew you, not in your past life anyway, but I do know how this all began.
One day on the planet Mars in the year 2070 three astronauts had landed there and were now exploring it, the reason was because of some very odd energy reading that was there. Once they got there, they stood aghast, at the source of the signals was a small white spherical planetoid no bigger than earth's moons. This odd object...was terraforming the planet!
The object was later known as the Traveler, a powerful extraterrestrial energy source that not only terraformed all planets and moons in the sol system, but actually shared knowledge of how to greatly improve our technology,our science, medical devices. Soon there were things unimaginable, space ships, colonies on other planets and moons, extremely advanced artificial intelligence, and people were living to 300.
It was an age of miracles, this, was the Golden Age. But this great period of peace could not last, because the traveler had an ancient enemy, the darkness, and it followed it to sol, and humanity was nearly lost in an event known as the Collapse. But there was hope, the traveler made a choice, it sacrificed itself to save humanity, and with its dying breath, created humanity's new hope. The Ghost, conduits Of its power known as the light, who have the power to resurrect a person from the long dead to become humanity's last hope, these men and women...are the Guardians.
I am a Ghost. The companion of the Guardians, and last will of the Traveler, you are a guardian, and this, is your Destiny.
(On old Russia. Earth. 2529)
In the wasteland of an old Russian cosmodrome, a small, floating white drone was floating around scanning the corpses and skeletons that scattered the area just outside its walls, hovering over old rusted cars and pitfalls and a destroyed bridge.
The small drone was no bigger than a soft ball, and it's appearance was strange, eight pyramids all around a sphere, mounted on two parallel lines running along the widest portion of the sphere in a vertical fashion. The space inbetween the front four can be distinguished from the back by its "face", as compared the the empty side on the back. It's "face" wasn't really a face, Just a neon blue horizontal diamond separated in two halves.
The little bot was scanning a couple of the skeletons. "Come on...where are you?" It floated into a car. Scanning the skeletons inside. "Ouch."
Meanwhile there were three strange looking aliens on an old car hood, all three were different sizes and were very ugly, the bigger ones had four arms, but the smallest had two, the lowest of its arms were docked. The biggest of the three looked at the small drone through his rifle scope then let out a loud roar.
With said drone, he finally stopped at a skeleton who was closest to the wall. "Is it possible? There you are!" He said as it's pyramids separated from its spherical body in a orb of blue light before it flashed all over the skeleton.
(A few minutes seconds later.)
The figure who's skeleton had just been completely resurrected, slowly awoke as he breathed life into his lungs again. Opening his eyes he heard someone talking as he tried to stand up.
"Guardian? Guardian! Eyes up Guardian!" The drone told him as he looked at it. "It worked! You're alive! You don't know how long I've been looking for you."
The man was about twenty years old, he had light blue skin, Dark navy hair styled in a pointed fashion, gold eyes, and golden eyeliner. He looked at the floating thing. "What are you? Where am I?" He said.
"Oh I'm a Ghost, actually now I'm your Ghost and well…" it said. "You've been dead a really long time, so you might see things you don't understand."
The man looked down at himself and noticed he was in some sort of white armor, a helmet was next to him, putting it on he shook his head. "I was dead how? I...can't remember anything."
"That's because of the resurrection. I think that necklace is yours though." Ghost said.
He picked up what looked like a locket, a locket with a picture of him in it. "Vulcan Sol...The ninth." He said as he read the name engraved on the back. "That must be my name."
"I like it." His Ghost nodded.
Vulcan looked at the small floating drone. "You need a name too, how about...Sentry?"
"...Sentry, I like it." Sentry nodded. Then a guttural roar was heard in the distance. "We got to move Vulcan. This is Fallen territory, we won't last a minute exposed like this. I have to get you to the city."
Vulcan nodded. "Understood. Lead the way little friend."
"Hold still." Sentry said as he disappeared. "I'm still with you." He said in a com system in the man's helmet. "We need to get inside the walls, it's the safest place."
The male nodded as he quickly sprinted towards a door at the side of the wall. Once inside the two started sneaking in. "What you need is a weapon. We need to find you one before the Fallen find us." Sentry said.
As they walked more, Vulcan saw a rifle up against an old canister. He picked it up. "This should work." He said.
"Quiet! They're right above us." Sentry hissed. Then there was a loud rattle before something yelled in a strange alien language. Vulcan ran in the dark room while Sentry helped illuminate the way, until he gets to some sort of look over area.
"Fallen thrive in the dark. We won't, we need more light. I'll see what I can do." Sentry said as he flew off. Once he was at a power box he started shooting light beams at it. "Another hardened military systems...and a few centuries of entropy working against me."
As soon as he finished the lights came on and several aliens crawled on the walls. "They're coming for us! Move!" Sentry said as he disappeared again.
Vulcan ran and went into a Hallway, then out of nowhere one of the smaller two armed aliens dropped from the ceiling. "It's a Dreg!"
Lining up the sights and started rapid firing his rifle, the Dreg was being shot and by the time he fell dead, it was full of bullet holes. Reloading, he looked at it. "Is this a low born Fallen?"
"Yes. They're the smallest and weakest." Sentry said. Leaving the corpse they ran to another hall and there were a bunch of Fallen, raising his gun, Vulcan started shooting the Dregs and the larger ones Sentry referred to as Vandals. But one Vandal survived a few shots and started running towards him.
It swung its arm at him and hit his helmet hard. Staggering back He then pulled back and drove his fist into the Vandals skull, sending it to the ground as it crushed under his fist, whitish purple fluid spewing everywhere.
As he killed this beast, Vulcan stood up and panted, breathing ragged. "That's the last of them." He said.
"There's more ahead. Keep it up!" Sentry told him as they walked across the cat walk to What looked like a chest. "A loot cache, Let's see what's inside."
Opening up the cache, blue bits and cubes came out of it. "Glimmer, it's currency, can be used to build, fuel, you name it." The Ghost informed him. Then the Awoken male pulled out a shotgun. "Preacher MK. 20." Vulcan nodded. "Nice."
After loading the shotgun he came up on a bunch of lasers. "Trip mines! Don't touch them." His Ghost told him. Crouching down he maneuvered through the trip mines and then four Dregs appeared.
"Eat lead punk." Vulcan said as he aimed and shot three with his shotgun, then slid and got a head shot on the last one as it fell dead. Running to a large area he saw about five Vandals and one Dreg.
"Let's give em hell." He grinned as he charged and slammed his fist into a Vandals skull, sending ether everywhere. Pulling out his auto rifle he then mowed down two others. Then he shoulder bashed the Dreg and crushed it, grabbing its arm, He slung it around and hit the others.
"The Fallen have a tighter hold on this place than I thought. Let's keep moving, Let's hope somethings out there." Sentry said as they left the area. Then they went into a cavern with two giant fans on either side. Once outside in a more open area, they didn't see any Fallen...yet.
"This used to be an old cosmodrome. There's got to be something we can fly out here." Sentry told him. Then there was a red flare shot into the air and then two ships appeared, one was large, the other was...enormous! "Fallen ships! This close to the surface?! Move!"
Vulcan nodded and started running to the other side of the clearing. Only for Fallen to start appearing in every direction. Pulling out his shotgun and blasted several Dregs as he jumped and shot with his auto rifle while in mid air. Then spinning around and mowing down the remaining two before running towards a building where two floating robots and two Dregs were.
Jumping onto the robot, which was called a Shank, he caused it to crash into the other and blow up, killing one of the Dregs. Then he grabbed the last one by the throat and slowly crushed it, it's head exploding.
As they continued to move they followed Sentry's tracking to a jump ship. "I'm picking up the signal of an old jump ship, that could be our ticket outta here."
As they neared a room, Vulcan saw three Dregs. Reaching into his pocket, he found a grenade. "That's a flashbang grenade, throw it at them." Sentry said. Arming the grenade he hurled it in. As soon as the Dregs saw it they screeched and it blew up, destroying them.
Getting up they continued on, but then two Dregs and a Vandal appeared. Grinning Vulcan threw himself at the first Dreg and slammed his fists into his skull. Then he grabbed the second one and grabbed it's face then threw it at the Vandal, then shot it with his shotgun.
"Anyone ever tell you you're a little crazy?" Sentry asked.
"No." Vulcan replied. The two went into an old hanger and saw a Vandal, three Dregs, and a very large Fallen, it was the biggest, a Capitan. The jump ship was there as well.
"There's the ship, clear them out!" His Ghost told him.
The captain roared as it started shooting at him. Running forward Vulcan blasted the Dregs first, then used his shotgun to kill the Vandal, a shank tried to blast him but he jumped and threw it into another Dreg who was hiding, causing it to explode.
Panting he was about to turn his attention to the captain, when said creature backhanded him into a wall. Coughing in pain, Vulcan slowly got up. Raising his shotgun he fired two shots before it was out of ammo. Then fired the last of his auto rounds. The captain staggered. He pulled out a rocket launcher and fired at him, hitting him and sending him back.
Vulcan coughed and hacked. Clenching his fists he charged at the captain and jumped on him, forcing his weapon away, they both traded blows, punch after punch, until both fell to the ground, the captain got up and punched at Vulcan again.
Then the awoken male, caught his fist, then the other after it. Rising up He rose his head back, and then slammed his skull into the Fallen captains, crushing it. The blow killed him, but unfortunately, it also killed Vulcan.
Sentry sighed. "Hang on." A flash of blue light and he was alive again. "Be careful from now on Okay?"
"Will do partner." The man nodded.
Sentry hovered around the ship, checking it. "Hasn't made a jump in centuries. We're lucky the Fallen haven't completely picked it clean."
"Will it fly?" Vulcan asked.
"I can make it work." The Ghost said as he activated the ship. It broke from its tethers and hovered. "Okay...it's not going to break orbit, but it just may get us to the city. Now, about that transmat—"
Then several Fallen started to pour in, and one was the largest they had ever seen. "Bringing you in!" Sentry activated the transmat and teleported him into the ship. "Don't worry, we'll come back for them when you're ready. But for now, let's get you home."
The ship blasted off away from the cosmodrome as a mysterious person watched them fly off.
(Later in the air space over the Last city.)
As the ship went to the landing doc of a large city, where the traveler was floating over it. As Vulcan was transmated to the ground as the ship went to the hangar. He took off his helmet and breathed in the air. As he looked over the railing at the city, Sentry appeared over his shoulder.
"Welcome to the last safe city, the only place the traveler can still protect. It took centuries to build. Now...we're counting every day it stands." Sentry told him. Then they turned to a large tower where Guardians were everywhere. "And this tower, is where the guardians live."
Vulcan nodded. "It's amazing."
"We need to talk to Commander Zavala, he's the mentor to the new titans in the city." Sentry said as they walked down some stairs into a commons room, where another Guardian, a Hunter was talking to a titan who was in orange and white armor.
Once in the meeting area of the tower, Vulcan walked up to a bald Awoken male who was in some awesome armor. "Commander Zavala?" He asked.
The man turned to him. "Ah, a new Guardian. Looks like the light becomes a little stronger today. What can I do for you, Titan?"
"Uh. My Ghost says that you can help me get some new gear." He said.
"Ah Yes, here you are." Zavala said, handing him a blue set of Titan chest armor. "This is the Titan field issue."
Sentry helped him change. "Thank you."
"You are quite welcome." The man said.
"Alright Vulcan, Let's go get those weapons sold." Sentry told him as they dismantled his old auto rifle and old chest piece, getting glimmer and parts as they went over to a booth run by an exo named Banshee-44, who was a gunsmith.
Banshee had blue metal skin, with yellow highlights, and he had some strange antennas all over his head. "Whatcha need, Titan?"
Vulcan looked at all the guns. "I'll take the Trax Callum I for these parts." He said, giving him the weapon parts and armor pieces, and some glimmer.
"Here ya go." The exo said as he gave the man the scout rifle.
The man grinned as he strapped it to his back. "Perfect."
"Okay, now all we need to do is talk to Amanda Holliday, The Shipwright." Sentry told him.
"Alright." Vulcan nodded as he and his Ghost headed to the tower hangar. "Once there, They saw various ships, including theirs. It was now repaired and looked better than ever.
"She's a beaut ain't she?" A voice asked from behind him.
Vulcan turned around and saw a woman with blonde hair standing in front of him. "Howdy there guardian, name's Holliday, Amanda Holliday. And I just gotta say, you got a nice ship."
"Oh, thank you." The man said.
"Though I will tell you one thing. I wasn't able to find it's warp drive, my guess is that the Fallen took it." She told him.
"Of course." Sentry groaned.
"So what exactly does that mean? We need to go and get a warp drive from the Fallen?" The Awoken male asked. "I highly doubt they'll sell it to us."
Amanda laughed while Sentry just looked at him in a Ghost-like way of exasperation. "Never figured you liked to joke." He said.
Vulcan chuckled. "Yeah me neither. Well, let's go."
(Later at the Cosmodrome)
As they landed Vulcan started walking around the grounds of the cosmodrome. "The Guardianship That was shot down here is just ahead. And it looks like two titans also found it." The Ghost And Guardian saw two titans crouching next to a crashed ship. They were bickering. Both looked to be recently risen like him, given how new their armor was.
The two Titans were brothers. Both well built and dark skinned. The older brother had two years on his little brother. Justus was his name. He had brown eyes, a lean build, and short hair. The younger brother, Tye, was shorter but very stocky and had a head full of dreadlocks.
"I told you, baby brother, it isn't here. You never take care of your weapons. I always have to check up behind you!", a flustered Justus exclaimed.
"Chill, man. It's here somewhere...I'm pretty sure. If it isn't, I'll just buy another one.", retorted Tye.
"Yeah. With my glimmer.", said Justus. Tye simply laughed.
"Let's ask them." Vulcan said, walking up to them. "Excuse me, do you two have a moment?"
"Sure, friend. What do you need? I'm Justus by the way." He gave Vulcan a firm handshake. "This is Tye. My irresponsible baby brother." Tye saluted Vulcan with a firm but playful disposition.
"I'm Vulcan, Vulcan Sol...IX." Vulcan says. "And this is my ghost, Sentry."
"Very pleased to meet you, Vulcan Sol and Sentry.", Justus said.
"The ninth, huh? What's that? A family name?" Tye asked.
Justus replied to his brother, "It means he's the ninth son of his family line named Vulcan. His name goes back nine generations."
Tye said, "Ooooooooh, ok. Gotcha. That's pretty cool."
Justus asked Vulcan, "So what brings you to the cosmodrome, Vulcan?"
"Warp Drive scavenging. The fallen took one from a ship i got after just being resurrected." the Awoken man said, putting his helmet on. "I believe they may be where it is, or may already have it.
"If you'd like some backup, we wouldn't mind going with you.", Justus offered. "If the fallen have stolen your warp drive, it must be important and heavily guarded."
"Yeah!", Tye exclaimed. "I've been itching to kick fallen tail all over the cosmodrome!"
Justus asked his brother, "Now how are you gonna do that with no gun?" He gave him his shotgun. "Please, take care of it, bro. I don't have many of those to lose."
Tye said, "Yeah, yeah. I got it. I'll take care of it." He aimed down the sights. "I'll take care of some fallen with it too." He grinned slightly.
"Then let's go. Sentry, lead the way." Vulcan said as he readied his own weapon.
The small ghost buzzed. "On it." as he sent specs to the other two guardians as they made their way through the abandoned structure.
As they did so, Sentry's specs sent them to a small screen area in a dark hall. "A map of the entire area.." the ghost said as it came out of Vulcan's suit with Justus' and Tye's as well. "What we really need is a warp drive, so we can jump to any planet or moon. Our only hope is where we found our ship. We have to go back."
"What about that huge fallen we saw earlier?" Vulcan asked.
"Huge fallen?", Justus inquired. "Hmm. Tye, didn't you see a large fallen scouting the area the other day?"
"Yeah, man. Thing was as big as a house. I almost challenged it to a fistfight, but my Ghost, Hammer, said he wasn't gonna res me if I lost. Haha."
An orange colored ghost appeared and spoke with a gruff, scratchy voice.
"That's right! That'll teach you to spill orange soda on my shell, buddy boy!", Hammer said angrily.
"At least it blended in!", Tye said happily and he laughed at his Ghost.
Justus shook his head. "Radiance, what information do you have on fallen of that size?", he asked his Ghost.
A purple ghost with spines in its back appeared and spoke with an intellectual and analytical voice.
"Archons. They're pretty much their priests. They don't fight us unless they need to. They usually just talk to machines. They're also one of the most powerful and high ranking fallen, next to a Kell."
"So they worship machines..." Vulcan thought aloud as they walked through the halls to an open clearing. "Okay, now where to go…"
Then suddenly Dregs and Vandals started walking in their area. "Damn it." he snarled.
A dreg turned and saw them, screeching in alarm to its comrades. The vandals snarled and turned, pointing their guns at the three.
"Finally! Some action!", exclaimed Tye. He raised the shotgun his brother gave him and ran forward alternating between punches and shotgun blasts.
Justus raised his auto rifle and calmly picked off enemies towards the back of the room firing in bursts of two and three rounds.
Vulcan pulled out his own gun and mowed down two dregs and then charged two vandals into a wall, knocking loose one of their helmets, which he stuck a flashbang grenade into the mouth of one of the four armed aliens.
"Chew on this you sorry piece of-" Vulcan said as he held them in place as the grenade went off in a blast of arc light.
"Storm Fist!", Tye exclaimed as he knocked the head off of a vandal. He tossed it to Vulcan. "I like your style, bro. Here's a present from yours truly.", he said to him.
"Thanks...though I'm not sure this...Striker class is right for me." Vulcan said as he stored the head in his inventory.
Justus incapacitated a vandal by countering its punch with a punch to its kidney.
"You two are much too violent.", Justus said as he wiped fallen blood from his brother's armor. "Respect your armor. A clean Titan is an honorable Titan."
Tye then proceeded to smear fallen blood all over his armor.
Justus sighed, "Why do I even bother…"
Tye said, "I think it makes me look cool. Plus, the intimidation factor is awesome! Imagine an armored soldier running towards you covered in the blood of your own allies!" He was beaming.
Justus shook his head, but then he glanced at Vulcan and thought to himself.
"Sol….I wonder if…" He spoke to his ghost Radiance softly. "Radiance, isn't there a group of mercenary Titans named the Sunbreakers?"
Radiance replied, "Yes, but they left the city to Mercury following the exile of Osiris, they don't like city guardians that much, if at all."
Justus replied, "Well, with that name and his affinity to fire, I think he may be one. When we return to the City, remind me to speak to Zavala about this."
"Will do.", the ghost replied as the new fireteam ran into a building the map showed the jump ship was previously.
"Scanning for the warp drive. Bad news. It's already in fallen hands.", Sentry said in a hushed tone.
Vulcan quickly opened a loot cache and got a new field guard gauntlet and some glimmer, he equipped the new gauntlet and dismantled the other. "Ah it's good to get new gear." He grinned.
Tye's ghost, Hammer, spoke from his armor. "I'm detecting a squadron of fallen in that room nearby."
Tye said, "I'm detecting that my knuckles are gonna be the new teeth of some fallen soon." As he said that, he cracked his fists.
Justus was silent. Steeling himself.
"I hope your ready for this." Sentry said as a skull icon appeared in their visors. "Darkness zone, no Resurrection here Vulcan, be careful."
With his nerves calmed, Justus offered a plan.
"Surprise is our friend here. We're outnumbered so sticking together during the battle will be our best bet.", he said quietly.
"I concur.", Radiance said.
But Tye said,"I got a plan too. Aim at fallen and pull the trigger."
"Yeah!", Hammer exclaimed.
"Mine is a compromise.", Vulcan said as he pulled out his rifle, aiming at a shank that hovered near a doorway, he shot it, causing it to crash into two dregs, instantly killing them, and injuring a vandal with an explosion.
The remaining fallen shrieked as they start shooting all over the place. "Simply send a shot that they can't see and plunge them into chaos.", the Awoken smirked under his helmet.
Justus raised his eyebrows under his helmet and said, "Not bad, Vulcan."
He took cover behind a nearby rock, finished off the injured vandal, and began engaging fallen with his rifle at mid and long ranges.
Tye let out a battle cry, and with his brother providing covering fire, ran in and engaged fallen at close range with his shotgun.
"Left! Right! Behind!", Hammer would exclaim as Tye battled.
"The warp drive. It's in the walls!" sentry said as a giant fallen came crawling out of a hole in the wall, causing a shock wave as he landed. He was well over 10 feet tall, was wearing gold and red armor, and was carrying a large cannon, his head was also shaped like an axe.
"Holy crap!" Tye yelled.
"That's the Devil Archon Priest Riksis! What's he doing here?!" hammer yelled.
Justus activated his force barrier and shot at the Archon. "Over here!", he exclaimed. He drew the aggro of the Archon "Tye, Vulcan, hit it from behind!"
Tye snapped out of his amazement and ran behind the Priest. He gave it two shots with his shotgun and started to fistfight with all four of its arms. He exchanged blows with the giant Fallen. Rights, lefts, hooks, and uppercuts. He gave the Archon a punch to the gut. Although greatly pained, Riksis roared and stomped the ground causing a shockwave which sent Tye back flying.
Justus threw his sticky grenade on Riksis, followed by a burst of automatic fire. The grenade exploded, stunning Riksis. "Go ahead, Vulcan! He's stunned!"
The titan nodded as he clenched his fist, as arc light coursed through him. "YAAAAAAGGGHHHH!" he yelled as he jumped into the air and slammed his arms into Riksis' skull. The energy was sent everywhere, killing every fallen in the area...except the Archon.
"Ize isezeal...zabu, RAAAGGHHH!" it spoke in a strange language.
Justus helped Tye to his feet, nodded to him, and said, "Now's your chance, baby brother. Take him down!"
Tye said to Vulcan, "My Fist of Havoc is ready, Vulcan! Care to give me an alley oop?"
Vulcan kneeled. "All yours.", he said.
The stocky Tye jumped off of Vulcan's broad shoulders and leapt toward the Archon priest fists crackling. He smashed directly into the Priest's skull and fell on top of him with a great thud. Justus pulled his brother off the body of the dead Archon and retrieved the warp drive.
"I believe this belongs to you, Vulcan.", he said giving the warp drive to him.
"You guys just killed an Archon…", Sentry said. "And we got a warp drive. Man the Speaker is not gonna believe this."
Getting the warp drive and a couple engrams for a arm guard, the team left.
(later at the Speaker's private study)
As the three titans walked into the large observatory-like room, they saw it had a perfect view of the Traveler. Vulcan, Justus, and Tye took off their helmets in reverence. "Wow, I can't believe I'm actually looking at the fabled Traveler.", Vulcan said.
"It's quite the sight...reminds you of what we're fighting for.", Justus said introspectively.
"The boys down in the city won't believe this one!", Tye said. "What an awesome scene."
Hammer, Radiance, and Sentry were hovering near the Traveler as if they were drawn to it. Then a man in white robes with a ghost of his own came walking to them, he was wearing a white mask.
"There was a time, when we were much more powerful. But that was long ago. Until it wakes and finds its voice, I am the one who will speak for the traveler." the man said as he walked closer. "You three must have no end of questions, Guardians. In its dying breath the Traveler created the ghosts. To seek out those who could wield the light as a weapon. Guardians, to protect us, and do what the traveler no longer can."
"What happened to it?" Vulcan asked.
"I could tell you the stories. How the Traveler was crippled. I could tell you of the power of the Darkness, it's ancient enemy. How it's used in tales to frighten children, lately those tales have stopped, and now..the children are frightened anyway." the Speaker said in a solemn tone. "The Darkness is coming back, we will not survive it this time."
"It's armies surround us." Sentry said.
"The Fallen are just the beginning.", Radiance added.
"What can I do to help?" Vulcan said.
"You mean what can we do, Vulcan. You're not getting rid of us that easily.", Tye said, putting an arm around his new friend's shoulders.
"Tye's right, Vulcan. We've been brought together for a reason. And together, we're gonna save all that we know and love from this darkness.", Justus said confidently.
He gives Vulcan a fist bump. The awoken man returned the gesture. "Thank you, all of you." he said.
Tye smiles and salutes with two fingers, and Justus gives a thumbs up.
The speaker looked at them. "Guardians are fighting on earth and beyond, join them. Your ghosts will guide you, I only hope they chose wisely."
The three ghosts made several beeping noises. "I did, I'm sure of it." Sentry said.
"As am I.", Radiance concurred.
"Dang right.", Hammer also agreed.
"We're in this together now boys. Let's make the most of it.", Sentry told his fellow Ghosts and Guardians.
Vulcan and the other three nod in agreement. "Yes, let's." Vulcan said, holding his fist out to his new comrades. "For the Traveler."
The two joined him in a three way fist bump. "For the Traveler.", they said in unison.
END OF CHAPTER 1